The unending fight over House Minority leadership

MONTHS after the inauguration of the ninth House of Representatives, main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leadership is still at daggers’ drawn with Honourable Ndidi Elumelu over his emergence as the Minority Leader of the House, writes KUNLE ODEREMI

HONOURABLE Ndidi Elumelu and his team seem not be losing sleep over the sustained opposition against his emergence as the Minority Leader in the House of Representatives. Accordingly, he has, again, called the bluff of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leadership for refusing to face the reality that the choice of a minority leader for the House had been settled, and all the major stakeholders have since moved ahead. To underscore this, Elumelu has been leading other members of team to perform functions that fall within the purview of the opposition in the legislature. Therefore, the Minority leader took exception to the tantrums thrown at the PDP caucus in the House. He denounced a statement the Special Adviser (Legal), Oyorima Idahosa, to the PDP national chairman, Chief Uche Secondus. Elumelu decried what he described as “unpleasant statements” credited to the national chairman of the PDP against loyal members of the party. “This is indeed the first time since 1999 that an aide of the national chairman of the PDP or any political party for that matter has ever insulted or castigated an elected member of the National Assembly, and for no reason. While the PDP members in the caucus, as loyal and dedicated members of the party, will not take issues with the person of the national chairman, he is however urged, as a leader, to be more circumspect in the manner he addresses issues relating to the party and its members in the media,” he said.

Elumelu wondered why Secondus should prefer to take the media space on such matters. In his words, “Such opportunity should have been used to explain why the National Working Committee, which he chairs, has failed to act on the report of the three committees set up by the party to investigate the matter.”

The inference from the view expressed by Elumelu is that all moves initiated by some influential individuals and caucuses within the PDP have yielded little or no tangible results. The committee set up by the party to resolve the matter was itself later mired in a crisis of confidence, with some of the members pulling out of the team.  The committee, headed by a former president of the Senate in the aborted Third Republic, Iyorchia Ayu, ran into troubled waters. So, the secretary of the panel, who is a former deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Austin Opara, resigned before the body submitted its report in September.

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The governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, also raised issues bordering on impropriety. The confusion and dingdong surrounding the fate of the committee worsened as two leading figures in the PDP gave different account on the whereabouts of the report of the panel. Whereas the chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the PDP, Senator Walid Jibrin, declared  thatthe panel had yet to submit its report, the secretary of the BOT, and former Senate President, Senator Adolphus Wabara, said it had indeed submitted the report. The other members of the panel were former Senate President David Mark and a former deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu. But meanwhile, the PDP leadership had suspended Elumelu, Wole Oke (PDP, Osun), Linda Ikpeazu (PDP, Anambra) and Anayo Edwin (PDP, Ebonyi).

On July 3, 2019, Elumelu (PDP, Delta) had emerged as the minority leader in a dramatic contest characterised by intense intrigues, with the PDP national leadership alleging betrayal. Other members of his team comprise Honourable Toby Okechukwu (PDP, Enugu) as deputy leader; Honourable Gideon Gwani (PDP, Kaduna) as minority whip and Honourable Adesehun Adekoya (PDP, Oyo) as deputy minority whip. The preferred choice  of the PDP top echelon were Honourable Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers) as a minority leader; Honourable Chukwuka Onyema (PDP, Anambra) as deputy minority leader; Honourable Yakubu Barde (PDP, Kaduna) as minority and Honourable Ajibola Muraina (PDP, Oyo) as deputy minority whip.

Beyond the façade of PDP

Some PDP stalwarts have blamed some external forces for the raging supremacy tussle over the post of Minority leadership in the House. Some claimed a few PDP members were acting the script prepared by influential persons and caucuses in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to permanently put the PDP on edge and whittle down its capacity and ability to act as checks and balance in the polity. The other school of thought among the PDP elements is that the raging issue over the minority leadership is a manifestation of the intense struggle among the various power centres within the PDP. According to some insiders, each of the caucuses wants to be fully in charge of the PDP machinery and dictate the pace of events. Those critical stakeholders include serving and former governors, as well as past and present members of the National Assembly.

There are also some PDP faithful who believe the role played by the present leadership of the House during the contest for the position of Minority Leader is suspect. Their argument is that the issue of who became Minority Leader should have been left for the opposition to resolve, with the PDP being the main opposition party playing a dominant role. The purveyors of such view recalled that on July 3, 2019, the plenary of the House was progressing smoothly until the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, tried to announce the names of minority leaders through a letter written and signed by members of the minority parties in the House. Honourable Kingsley Chinda raised a point of order, citing Order 6 Rule 1, that members of minority parties in the House shall choose someone with experience to lead them.

Consequently, Chinda stated that the PDP leadership had written to the Speaker to inform him of its choice for the positions.

According to the PDP, its action was “in accordance with extant laws, House rules, conventions and general legislative practices worldwide. PDP after wide consultations with house caucus, the party leadership from the geo-political zones and the National Working Committee (NWC) hereby forward the names of the duly agreed and approved house minority leadership as follows,” the letter read. However, the Speaker premised his intervention on the ground that there were nine minority political parties, including the PDP, in the House. So, Gbajabiamila ruled Chinda out of order and moved to read a letter, which he said was signed by 99 members of minority political parties on the leadership positions.

A part of the negative effects of crisis of confidence in the party was the allegation that necessitated the move to probe Honourable Chinda (PDP, Rivers) for allegedly appropriating to himself the title of the leader of the PDP Caucus in the House.  The House Ethics and Privileges Committees was directed to grill Chinda and probe a former deputy minority leader, Honourable Chukwuka Onyema (PDP, Anambra), a former minority whip, Honourable Yakubu Barde (PDP, Kaduna) and Honourable Ajibola Muraina (PDP, Oyo) for allegedly parading themselves as leaders of the PDP Caucus. The move followed the adoption of a matter of privilege raised by Honourable Ben Igbakpa (PDP, Delta) at plenary that Chinda, Onyema, Barde and Muraina had been issuing statements as leaders of the PDP caucus in the House in contravention of the rule of the House. Citing Order 1(1) and (2) of the Standing Order of the House, Igbakpa maintained that “it is common knowledge that on July 3, 2019, the Speaker, in line with Order 7 Rule 8 of the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives (which empowered the minority parties to nominate their leaders), announced the minority leaders of the House. This was consequently published in the votes and proceedings of the same date.”

However, Chinda had declared that he had the authority of the PDP to function as the leader of the opposition party’s caucus in the House. In spontaneity, the PDP issued a statement backing Cinda in his claim.

With all the interests linked to the muscle flexing remaining adamant, the PDP seems to be burning the candle at both ends; there is yet no consensus among the elders of the party over the dispute, especially with the sharp division on the report of the Ayu panel that was mandated to evolve the best way forward. Neither is there a unanimity of purpose among the lawmakers in the National Assembly elected on the platform of the party on possible compromise that can resolve the issue so far. So, the mutual suspicion and mistrust between the PDP caucus in the House and the party’s top hierarchy persist.

Nigerian Tribune